Landulf I called the Old, was the first gastald of Capua of his illustrious family, which would rule Capua

Capua

Capua is a city and comune in the province of Caserta, Campania, southern Italy, situated 25 km north of Naples, on the northeastern edge of the Campanian plain. Ancient Capua was situated where Santa Maria Capua Vetere is now...

 until 1058. According to the Cronaca della dinastia di Capua, he ruled in Old Capua for twenty five years and four months and in New Capua for another year and eight months. According to Erchempert

Erchempert

Erchempert was a monk of Monte Cassino in the final quarter of the ninth century. He chronicled a history of Lombard Benevento, giving especially vivid account of the violence surrounding his monastic retreat in his own day. The work, Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum, stops in the winter of...

, he was "a very bellicose man" (vir bellicosissimus).

In 839, according to the Chronica S. Benedicti Casinensis Landulf took the initiative in freeing Siconulf, the imprisoned brother of the assassinated prince of Benevento, Sicard

Sicard of Benevento

Sicard was the Prince of Benevento from 832. He was the last prince of a united Benevento which covered most of the Mezzogiorno. On his death, the principality descended into civil war which split it permanently...

. He supported Siconulf in his war with the usurper Radelchis

Radelchis I of Benevento

Radelchis I was the treasurer, then prince of Benevento from 839, when he assumed the throne upon the assassination of Sicard and imprisonment of Sicard's brother, Siconulf, to his death, though in his time the principality was divided.According to the Chronica S...

. Siconulf was proclaimed prince in Salerno

Salerno

Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

 and Landulf pledged his city to him. He had fought for Sicard against Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

 in his early years, but he concluded a peace treaty with the Neapolitans in order to be able to fully enter the war against Radelchis. Radelchis called in Saracen

Saracen

Saracen was a term used by the ancient Romans to refer to a people who lived in desert areas in and around the Roman province of Arabia, and who were distinguished from Arabs. In Europe during the Middle Ages the term was expanded to include Arabs, and then all who professed the religion of Islam...

 mercenaries and they sacked Capua in 841. The ruins of that city are all that is left of "Old Capua" (see Santa Maria Capua Vetere

Santa Maria Capua Vetere

-External links:*...

). Landulf founded the present-day Capua, "New Capua", at the hill of nearby Triflisco, which he fortified as "Rebelopolis", according to the Chronicon Salernitanum

Chronicon Salernitanum

The Chronicon Salernitanum, or "Salerno Chronicle", is an anonymous 10th century chronicle of the history of the Principality of Salerno. It was probably written around 990 and has been attributed to Radoald of Salerno, Abbot of San Benedetto, by Huguette Taviani-Carozzi...

. It is from then that the chronicler says he ruled another year and eight months, dying probably in 843. It seems that, by the end of his life, he was employing the title of count.

He left four sons of prominence in the next decades in the Mezzogiorno

Mezzogiorno

The Midday is a wide definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the southern half of the Italian state, encompassing the southern section of the continental Italian Peninsula and the two major islands of Sicily and Sardinia, in addition to a large number of minor islands...

: Lando

Lando I of Capua

Lando I was the count of Capua from 843. He was the eldest son and successor of Landulf the Old. Like his father, he supported Siconulf against Radelchis in the civil war dividing the Principality of Benevento in the 840s....

, who succeeded him; Pando

Pando of Capua

Pando the Rapacious was the second son of Landulf I of Capua and brother of Lando I. When his father died , Lando succeeded to the countship, but Pando and their younger brother Landulf were associated as co-rulers...

, who became marepaphias

Marepaphias

Marepaphias was a Lombard title of Germanic origin meaning "master of the horse," probably somewhat analogous to the Latin title comes stabuli or constable...

at Salerno and later count of Capua; Landenulf, the first count of Teano

Teano

Teano is a town and comune of Campania, Italy, in the province of Caserta, 30 km north-west of that town on the main line to Rome from Naples. It stands at the south-east foot of an extinct volcano, Rocca Monfina.- Ancient times and Middle Ages:...

; and Landulf

Landulf II of Capua

Landulf II was Bishop and Count of Capua. He was the youngest of four sons of Landulf I, gastald of Capua. As a young man, he entered the church. When his father died, his eldest brother, Lando, succeeded him....

, who became both bishop and count of Capua later.

Sources

• Historia Langabardorvm Beneventarnorvm at The Latin Library
• Chronica S. Benedicti Casinensis at Institut für Mittelalter Forschung
• Caravale, Mario (ed). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani: LXIII Labroca – Laterza. Rome
  Rome
  Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
  
  , 2004.